China’s Video Game “Retail” Displays Look Suspect

Last week, photos of last generation video game consoles have appeared online in China. No, these aren’t any regular old photos, the consoles in these photos are in retail display kiosks inside Chinese brick and mortar electronics shop Suning. These photos have spurred up the talk that China’s video game console market will open up…

Was Naruto Ripped Off By a Chinese TV Show?

Since relations with Japan have come to a low of late, China has been churning out anti-Japanese television shows, games, and more. Ironically, while hating on all things Japan, one of China’s newest anti-Japanese productions seems to have stolen music from Japan’s own Naruto. That’s right, an anti-Japanese television show with music from Naruto. Go…

Drakengard 3‘s Director Is Keen for Drakengard 4

In a recently published interview from late last year with 4Gamer (via Siliconera), Drakengard‘s series director Taro Yoko reflected on 2013 and 2014. Last year was probably busy. This year? Less so. “I’d like to say thank you very much for the year 2013 to everyone,” said Yoko, who’s known for his honesty. “Living can…

One Company Is Dominating Chinese Internet Cafes (Apparently!)

While Chinese Internet cafes are supposedly on the decline, but with a 126 million active players at net cafes across the country it’s easy to see that net cafes are still a major player in the gaming scene of China. Such as it is, it’s always interesting to see what kind of games are being…

Hyper-Violent Anime Gets a Hollywood Live-Action Trailer

The classic, cult-hit anime Kite is coming to the big screen in a live-action Hollywood production starring Samuel L. Jackson and India Eisely. Here’s the flick’s debut trailer. It feels reminiscent of Luc Besson’s The Professional (not a bad thing), and I doubt the live-action version will be anywhere as violent (or pornographic) as the…

Pokémon X/Y Might Feature a Transgender Character

The above character appears to make a nuanced hint at her gender change in the latest Pocket Monster game, Pokémon X/Y In the English language version of the game, the text that accompanies the above character reads, “Yes, a mere half year ago I was a Black Belt! Quite the transformation, wouldn’t you say?” The…

Five Video Games I Can’t Believe You Can Pre-Order

Once upon a time I felt as though pre-ordering a video game was a helpful consumer service but nowadays? With a handful of exceptions pre-ordering video games is all about serving your corporate overlords by informing retailers and publishers of demand and the impact of marketing campaigns. Well, there’s that and there’s the whole getting…

German Pro Gamer’s Visa Denied, Kicked Out Of America

Marcel “Dexter” Feldkamp, a pro gamer on the League of Legends circuit, landed in Washington on Friday on the way to a tournament in California. It’s as far as he got. As The Daily Dot first reported, Feldkamp was detained at Washington’s Dulles International Airport. In a series of tweets, he says he first had…

Seems designer Clint Hocking (Far Cry 2), formerly of Ubisoft and Lucasarts, is now formerly of Valve as well

Nintendo Has To Give Some Of Its 3DS Money To Another Company

It’s the kind of run Nintendo’s been on lately, that even the company’s one piece of good news – the growing success of the 3DS – has to get a little gloomier. With the Wii U a disaster, it’s 3DS sales that are making Nintendo’s money right now, but from here on in the Japanese…

RIP Greg Martin, A Guy Who Drew Awesome Box Art

The Nintendo Age Forums bring us the sad news that artist Greg Martin, responsible for some of the most iconic box art in video game history, has passed away. A former animator at Hanna-Barbera, where he worked on series like The Jetsons and The Flintstones, he also contributed to later animated series like Teenage Mutant…

NES Remix, a medley of bite-sized challenges based on familiar NES favorites, ended a time challenge after an exploit was discovered. The game’s director said yesterday on Miiverse that the “Collect all the coins!” challenge is done after finding out some were able to goose their times by repeatedly pausing the level.

The Week in Games: 2014’s First Cut

Video gaming new releases are still deep in hibernation but there are a couple of notable titles coming this week. Let’s also look ahead through the next couple of months to see what else is on the way. Here’s the—uh, well, it’s a span of time, in games. Tuesday, Jan. 7 Don’t Starve (PS4) Thursday,…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: High-Class Hookah

The slow holiday week means we’ve got to reach back into 2013 for our first ‘Shop Contest of 2014. It’s the Good Ole VapeCube. More concretely, I need you guys to develop me some more bongs out of well known video-gaming paraphernalia. And put your weed in there! So while I’m not going totally open-ended…